Viktor Bout 'wanted to kill Americans'

A former Soviet military officer was willing to sell "staggering
quantities" of weapons and explosives to anti-American rebels to make
millions of dollars, a US prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday as the trial
of a man dubbed the Merchant of Death began.

Alla Bout, the wife of Viktor Bout arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for the first day of jury selection Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

7:45PM BST 12 Oct 2011

Brendan McGuire, assistant US attorney, pointed at Viktor Bout as he accused him of promising to deliver 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 high-powered rifles and 10 million rounds of ammunition in a shipment of weapons destined for Colombia in 2008.

"This man, Viktor Bout, agreed to provide all of it to a foreign terrorist organisation he believes was going to kill Americans," Mr McGuire said in his opening statements.

Bout was brought to the US last year from Thailand, where he was arrested in March 2008.

The prosecutor added that Bout did not know he was trapped in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation and that the two men he was dealing with were working for the US government.

He said Bout had the experience, the will and the means to deliver "staggering quantities of weapons and explosives" to the rebels.

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"Why? For the money," Mr McGuire said. He said prosecutors would play hours of taped conversations for jurors so they could hear Bout talking about the arms deal.

Bout's defence lawyer, Albert Dayan, told the jury that Bout was agreeing with whatever the DEA operatives were saying so that he could sell two transport planes for $5 million. He said Bout lost his transport business and had turned to real estate when the US operatives tried to trap him in a crime.

"Viktor was baiting them along with the promise of arms, hoping just to sell his planes," he said.